The final chapter in Deepa Mehta’s “elemental trilogy” has much to do with the cleansing substance of the title, the grand river Ganges and purity of spirit, yet at its core it’s a feminist anthem. It’s set in 1938, when Gandhi was beginning to defy the colonial Brits and widows were held as outcasts — a notch above whores — and forced to live an existence of self-denial. Such is the fate of seven-year-old Chuyia (Sarala), the victim of an arranged marriage, and Kalyani (the stunning Lisa Ray), a dour siren at the height of her womanhood. The two bond inside a languid ashram and launch their own form of defiance. Kalyani even dares to love. In making the film, Mehta endured her own form of persecution: virulent protests from Hindu fundamentalists forced her to complete the project in another country. With harrowing turns, a remarkable performance by Saralam and Giles Nuttgens’s opulent cinematography, Water nearly enters the realm of Jafar Panahi’s The Circle and the subtle yet rebellious early works of Zhang Yimou.

Emasculation proclamation Though the press and Barack Obama supporters often maintain the opposite, by the rough-and-tumble standards of American politics, Hillary Clinton really hasn’t run that tough a campaign against the Illinois senator.

Te Doy Mis Ojos | Take My Eyes Born as much from her 2000 20-minute short “Amores que matan|Loves That Kill” as from her love for the films of Ken Loach, director and co-writer Icíar Bollaín’s acute, (almost) thoughtful look at domestic abuse details the struggles of housewife Pilar and her time-bomb husband, Antonio.

Loners What do you give an audience after The Goat , Edward Albee’s 2002 Tony winner about a prize-winning architect sexually bewitched by an animal?

ID Check: Chelsea Spear Chelsea Spear grew up in Medford, back when it was strictly a working-class enclave known largely for “big hair, Spandex, and KISS-108,” so she understands the injuries of class.

Repro on the Red Line Safe sex just got a little easier for women in Cambridge and Somerville, who won’t have to go quite as far for birth control, emergency contraception, or testing for pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections.

Back in the USSR Gulag is the Russian acronym for the government agency that administered the famously harsh system of forced labor camps in the former Soviet Union, but it has come to refer more generally to that system of prisons and detention facilities.

Social studies III Cherrie Moraga’s The Hungry Woman , subtitled A Mexican Medea, is an attempt to incorporate pre-Hispanic La Llorona (the Weeping Woman) mythology with a quasi-contemporary tale of the Greek tragic figure, seen through a feminist lesbian lens.

Controlling birth Not surprisingly, I am searching for yet another birth control pill that doesn’t wreck my life.

You wear it well The relationship between our bodies and our clothing is, of course, intimate.

Tackling the issues When Sarah Palin’s interviews with Katie Couric first aired, people rushed to defend or condemn her. But one man opted for the blitz package instead.

HOLLYWOOD, RI-STYLE | July 30, 2014 The 2014 edition will premiere more than 240 films (features, shorts and documentaries) from 62 countries and 34 US states.

GLOBAL CINEMA, LOCAL FLAVOR | August 08, 2013 The 17th annual incarnation of the Rhode Island International Film Festival begins its weeklong run on August 6. The festival, which boasts more than 200 films from 65 countries, is a celebration of the cinematic arts with a campus feel and a focus on all things Rhode Island.

REVIEW: SAFE HAVEN | February 14, 2013 Somewhere along the way Nicholas Sparks went from being just a bestselling author of preachy schmaltz to a full-on franchise (he produces the movies of his books).